The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-08-20
LAUREL CauP.

 ing with you '" and dainty Bess Flem- ing perched herself diseonsolately on the arm of the lounge ill what her brothers called. their ''boudoir." and gazed with big, wistful gray eyes on the animated scene before her.
 The festive preparations are indeed almost enough to make one wish one had been born boy. Floor, chairs and table are covered with a choice but varied collection of hunting boots, fishing tackle, entomologist's para phernalia Of waxen- headed pins, chio- roform bottles, and butterfly nets, favorite authors, hammocks, and other evidences ofa right royal good time. " The masculine occupants of the room were all so very deeply engrossed that their envious sisters plaintive wish fell on almost unheeding ears.
 Hall muttered: "W-wish you couldw Tom gazed at her through the microscope glass he was polishing, with an eye enormously enlarged thereby, and smiled ill conscious mas- culine superiority; and only good natured Steenie paused ill his strug- gles with his knapsack (which seemingly declined to accommodate his blanket, work on anatomy, gossamer coat and dismembered gum sufficiently long to say with genuine brotherly good will;
 And you should go ill minute, Popity-it would be worth ten sea- sons to you-if it were not for Val Graham"
 Wal Graham. Who is he? Let him stay at home, then. To make coffee in dear little kettle swung on three sticks, to sleep in hammock, and be out doors all summer!" cries Miss Fleming, enthusiastically. "Oh, I will go! Whats the matter with Graham? Is he one of your fossilized professors who would petrify sim pie maiden? don't care what he is, you need not imagine I would find time to look at him. 1 (magnani- mously) won't mind him bit"
 "But, b-b-bless you, my child," calculated Hal, energetically, tits not a question of whether you would mind Val. The boot is on the other leg. It's Val would mind you. There's some romantic story about his being brought up by an uncle who had been cruelty treated by some lovely fiirt. Youthful affections trampled on, and all that kind of thing. Takes to the life of hermit, and educates the in- genius Valentine to regard with hor- TOT the whole female sex. Val would sooner face 'wenomous wiper than a woman, and am confident that if he suspected we meditated such treason as the introduction of the dreaded element, he would flee to the uttermost parts of the earth rather than go with us; and he t.-e prime suggestor of the camping scheme, too Lastly, and finally, how could such a luxurious little lady rough it with a lot of boys among the jungles of New York state? It's impossible"
 "Oh, you can say impossible; but could go, and you would take me, if it were not for that odious creature. How hate him !" cried Bess, stormily.
 "A letter for you, MT. Stephen" and the dignifed butler steps solemnly over the debris, and looks with stern disapproval at the disordered room. "From Val himself, is it not, Steen- ie?" asked Tom.
 "Yes. Too bad, he can't go, after all-attack of malarial fever-knows you will have jolly time. Almost desperate when think of your start ing without me- 1" reads Steenie, dis jointedly.
 sNow am going" and Bess starts up impetuously.
 "How can you?"
 "You'll see. I'll take Martha to take care of me. Pll be ready in an hour, Martha and her budgets includ- ed," and Bess vanished like small whir wind, leaving the trio too much astonished to do aught but stare at each other in silence.
 Did she accomplish it? Of course what other result was possible to SO much energy and spirit? By the time the others had finished their remarka- ble masculine packing, Bess, bubbling over with merry anticipation, was soothing the dazed Martha, who was vibrating between feeling of gypsy ish delight at what seemed to her a mad escapade and gloomy presenti- ments of inevitable rheumatism.
 
 The scene shifts to the wilds of the Empire state and a camp established in their depths. There is no more fashionable tabernacle in the wilder ness, but real camp, with amateur cooks, with spicy hemlock bed. and with smoke blackened kettle swing ing over fire, the smoke of which carls laxiiy upward, making misty the delicate tracery of the waving